A group of hackers in Venezuela by the name of Team HDP have broken into the country's Directorate General of Military Counterintelligence. Once inside the database, the hackers gained access to information on purported Hezbollah operatives living freely in the country under the protection of President Nicolas Maduro's socialist government.
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For years, Western intelligence organizations have warned of the presence of international terrorist organizations on Venezuelan soil. One of Iran's greatest allies in South America, Venezuela is known as a diplomatic refuge for terrorists and local guerilla fighters. Even Petroleum Minister and former Venezuelan Vice President Tareck El Aissami has been tied to the Lebanese terrorist group.
In 2017, the US Treasury Department sanctioned El Aissami over money laundering and facilitating the drug trade. Two years later, in 2019, he was put on the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Most Wanted List.
The hackers emphasized the operation was carried out in cooperation with former state intelligence officials. They revealed the terrorists had entered the country as Spanish-language students under the cover of "government language studies programs" via Margarita Island, a member of the hacking ring explained to Israel Hayom.
The operatives appear to be involved in arms and drug trafficking as well as money laundering to finance terror.
Many of the operatives are members of the Maklad family, originally from the Druze village of As-Suwayda, near the Jordanian border in southwestern Syria.
Jalal Maklad, for example, is described as "involved in the cocaine trade and the trafficking of strategic minerals and international terror financing." He is said to reside in the Venezuelan state of Nueva Esparta.
Another operative, Rabi Maklad, is involved in the cocaine and strategic mineral trade, the trafficking of women and minors, and money laundering to finance terrorism. According to the report, he "is one of the organized crime heads with trade ties in Columbia."
Majdi Maklad is involved in the cocaine trade and weapons and ammunition trafficking.
Hayyan al-Matthani, another operative that appears in the database, is active in the Druze community and resides in Nueva Esparta. He has been involved in similar crimes as well as the trade of weapons and ammunition with the British Virgin Islands and Dutch islands in the Caribbean.
A source on Margarita Island claimed to know some of the individuals in the report personally. He said active agents in the military intelligence had a hand in leaking the report.
"The Maklad Family has lived there for four generations, but the ties to Hezbollah were forged not long ago," the source said.
"They are the sole owners of the local airport in Santiago Marinho," the source continued, "and they have direct ties to Petroleum Minister El Aissami. They are very protected and they don't get off the island. It's their kingdom, and they have immunity," he explained.
Tehran and Caracas maintain close ties. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian recently announced the two countries would soon sign a 20-year strategic agreement. An Iranian-flagged oil tanker carrying 2 million barrels of heavy crude provided by Venezuelan state-run oil firm PDVSA departed the South American country last week.
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